When I Die
by Princess in the Pea
Summary: Just thought of this watching the movie once and wrote it down and now I'm posting it. It's how I think Rafe will die. OneShot


disclamer: don't own Pearl Harbor. never have, never will. Besides if I did I'd have Josh Hartnet's phone number and wouldn't be spending my large amount of freetime writting fanfics.

A/N: I loved this movie, but I'm not one of those people who would change the ending. Yea I would have loved for Danny to live don't get me wrong, but if a movie can make you cry then it's one good movie and should be left alone. Sorry if some of the stroy is wrong I'm notallowed to watch this movie as much as I would like because it makes me cry and CBS or ABC or whoever showed it in March should never be permitted to show it again because they skipped a bunch of parts including most of Danny's death.

* * *

Rafe held Danny in his arms, "Rafe, I'm not gonna make it." Danny choked.

"Yes you are Danny you can't die!"

"I'm s..s…so c…cold Rafe."

"Danny you're not gonna die!" Rafe pauses for a moment, "Danny you can't die. You're gonna be a daddy."

Danny looked into his best friend's eyes, "No Rafe, you are."

Rafe watched his friend close his eyes and fall into a never waking sleep.

Fifty years later Rafe lies in a hospital bed dieing from sickness and old age. Evelyn sobs next to him mumbling something incoherently and his three children (including little Danny) sat in chairs surrounding his bed along with their spouses. There children were in a play room in the hospital, Danny and his wife, Caroline, had made the suggestion. They knew their children loved their grandpa Rafe, but at such a young age it wasn't good for them to be around this sort of thing.

"Rafe!" came the choked sob of Evelyn. Danny put his arm around her, "It's okay mom. It's okay." He said gently

"First Danny and now you!"

"Ev, don't compare my death to his he died a hero…he died a hero's death."

"Dad," Danny said gently, "you never told me one thing about him."

"What's that son?" Rafe asked in his raspy voice anyone could tell he was sick.

"You never told any of us….exactly what happened."

"I did promise that I would tell you what happened before I died, didn't I?"

"Rafe if you don't feel like it you don't have to." Evelyn said.

"No Ev it's the least I owe you…and him. He was the best friend I ever had and I want something like that, like how he died to live on, because Danny died a hero's death."

"Alright Rafe if that's what you want." She said hesitantly

In the playroom of the hospital the children played not knowing that there was a young man with brown hair and brown eyes watching them, his grandkids' and his best friends grandkids', while waiting for the time to come where he would reunite with his old buddy. A small boy turned around, "Hey mister!" he called, "you look just like my daddy." All the other children turned to look at him and nodded. Danny chuckled then said, "Wull that's cause I'm your granddaddy." The little boy smiled, "You're the one grandpa Rafe always talks about. I guess you're here fer a reason then?"

"Yeah," Danny responded, "I'm here to see an old friend."

"You wanna play?" asked a little girl who looked just like Evelyn

He looked at the clock, "Alright, but only for a few minutes." He said. As the Youngman played with the young children, whom he had watched over for so long, he watched the clock with constant vigilance waiting for the time when Rafe would say the words that would queue him to go.

"Danny was my best friend, Danny was my brother." He started distantly like he was trying to relive the memory forever. "His father wasn't the nicest man I'd ever met but he loved his son. I've told ya'll about our many adventures from fightin Germans in a stationary plane to fightin each other in a bar in Hawaii. I told you how we were the only ones who got up in the air at Pearl and how we watched all our friends die, but I never told anyone bout the ending to our last adventure together…the Doolittle Raid. We bombed Japan and left. It felt like forever before we saw the Chinese shore Danny had wanted to bail out but I couldn't go back into that death cold water. So we kept on flyin. Now I look back and wish we hadn't cause then I still woulda had him all those years."

The young man heard the words he needed to hear, "See ya later kids." He said and walked through the door and down the hall to Rafe's room, room 106. There he walked through the door also and stood in the corner waiting for Rafe to finish his last war story. He had heard them all, the one thing he regretted was that they were all about him. All his friends Rafe, Red, Gooz, Evelyn, even Sandra and Evelyn's other nurse friends always told stories of him. Oh yeah they told stories of others but when it all came down to it at the end he would always hear "That's what Danny would've done." while a small child sat on their lap listening to every single word. Most of his friends children had done a report on a war hero and had always asked about their parent's favorite person, the answer would always be Danny and he noticed that teachers never got bored of hearing his name. Even his own son had done a report on him and his bravery, but he wished his friends wouldn't glorify him, they all did it except for Rafe who told it like he would have wanted it, all facts.

As he stood there listening all he could think was that this one was the grandest tale Rafe would and could ever tell.

"But anyways my men had landed in a field full of Japanese camps and were tramped in a rain of bullets. Danny bein who he was turned round and came back shotin those damn Japs and savin my butt. I watched like it was in slow motion as his plane hit the ground and before I knew what I was doin my feet were takin me straight to him. I found him with a piece of metal from the plane stuck in his neck and it was hurtin him. While I was tryin to pull it out some Japs snuck behind us and hit me over the head. They tied up my crew and me and then they did the worst thing they coulda done…they tied Danny with a yoke over his neck so it was hurtin him. That was the last straw. I grabbed my gun and shot them and they shot back. I didn't even think of what might of happened and in protecting my best friend I ended up killin him. I held him and kept telling him he couldn't die…then I told him why," there wasn't an eye in the room that was dry by this point in the story. "I told him he was gonna be a daddy," he sighed, "it was a last resort he had just said he was cold and I knew I was losin him and I couldn't." Rafe paused again. Danny knew Rafe sensed his presents. Danny knew, that Rafe knew he was there to take him home.

"Rafe?"

"Sorry Evelyn. Danny's last words to me were 'No Rafe…you are' then he closed his eyes and they never opened again. I had just lost my best friend to a never waking sleep."

"Speaking of sleep I think you should get some Mr. McCauley." A nurse said sticking her head in the door. Evelyn looked at her, "ya'll can stay." She added.

Evelyn watched Rafe close his eyes then about a half-hour later Rafe's monitor went flat and Evelyn began to cry as little Danny held her. She looked up to see her husband young again like he had been the last time she had seen both him and Danny alive. Rafe slowly smiled at her as if to tell her it would be alright then look at the corner of the room by the door. She hesitantly followed his gaze and everyone else followed hers. She let out a choked sob as she saw the young man standing in the corner, the young man she knew as Danny Walker father to her first born son and best friend to her husband. Everyone stared in disbelief. He hadn't aged a day which meant only one thing…he was a ghost.

"Why are you here Danny! You wanna take him away from me too? You wanna ruin my life again? For a third time?"

His warm smile faltered then with his soft gaze he looked into her eyes trying so hard to help her understand, this is how it has to be. That phrase kept running through her mind in Danny's deep voice, a voice she hadn't heard in so long and she began to cry. Slowly she nodded to show she understood. "Ev. I love you." Rafe said to her then turned to Danny. "I missed you like hell."

"I know that. I missed you to…well the whole talking thing at least." That got a laugh out of Rafe.

Danny turned to Evelyn, "I love you to Ev and I'll be here when you're ready."

Rafe walked over to Danny and nodded, "I'm ready to go."

They walked through the door and their family followed and watched as the two friends walked down the sterile white hall that seemed to glow more than it had when they came in. At the end of the hall the pair stopped and Rafe turned to Danny.

"Hey Danny."

Yeah Rafe?"

"Land of the free,"

"Home of the Brave." Slowly the two disappeared until there was no one in the hall except Evelyn, Danny, Caroline, James, his wife Alice, Sam, and her husband John. After a few minutes of crying, which nobody but little Danny knew the significance of, she looked up to see the only other one crying was her eldest son and she watched slowly as sparkling tears rolled down his cheeks and saw only his father in him at that moment.

"Hey Danny," James said, "why you cryin?"

"Cause," he began then looked down at Evelyn, "I just met my Daddy."


End file.
